The ABA Releases the Result of its Law School Employment Survey

The American Bar Association just completed and released the results of its Annual Employment survey across all ABA-accredited law schools. You can download each school’s results here, along with a list of definitions for the different types of positions.

What Is the ABA employment summary?

The ABA Employment Summary is a survey that is sent out every year to every single accredited law school asking a series of questions about graduate students employment status. Schools then send out a survey request to their recent graduates asking for them to fill it out. The law school has 10 months from graduation to gather its employment statistics and report on it. It is helpful in determining law school performance compared to market demands.

What does it cover?

The ABA Employment summary covers quite a bit:

The size of the graduating class

How many people were employed in bar passage required positions

Number of people employed where having a JD was considered an advantage to the position

Breakdown of position by part or full time, short term or long term

Breakdown of where students went off to (business profession, clerkship, solo practitioner, etc.)

States with the highest placement from the graduating class.

Should I care if I am a current student?

Absolutely! First, the ABA employment summary can tell you how well your school is doing, give you guidance on where you should focus your search (for example, seeing that the school tends to place students in mid-size law firms can let you know the career services office might have a lot of good connections at those places).

Second, if you are thinking of transferring to another school, think about the area of law you want to practice, along with the geographical location you can use the information to determine if it is the right school for you.

Topics of Note:

We’ll be putting together an analysis of the information over the next few weeks. In the meantime, below are some topics we are actively working on.